OLPC cuts staff in half

Netbooks are one of the hottest segments of the computer market today, and netbooks might not exist if it hadn’t been for Nicholas Negroponte’s OLPC effort. But these are not exactly the best of times to be running a non-profit. And OLPC has been hit hard. Negroponte posted an entry on the foundation’s Wiki today saying that the group is cutting its staff by about 50% and reducing salaries for the 32 people who will remain on staff.

The organization is still focusing on delivering the laptop to children in developing countries, but these cuts are obviously going to force the group to scale back on some areas. While there are still plans to build a new XO Laptop with dual touch screen displays, I have to wonder how the foundation is going to meet that goal given today’s announcement.

If Negroponte’s goal was to drive down the price of laptops, he’s done that. Dozens of companies are selling netbooks with low power processors and price tags between $200 and $600 today and that wasn’t true a few years ago. But Negroponte does say that one of the project’s goals now is to bring the price down to $0 for children in some of the most underdeveloped nations, and that’s something that commercial computer makers like Asus, Acer, and MSI aren’t likely to do anytime soon.

What do you think? Is it time for the OLPC Foundation to declare mission accomplished and move on, or is there a way to save this project?

via OStatic

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There are thousands of groups of people working on hardware or software for what we now call netbooks and/or for low cost computing for education. There is NOBODY else like the OLPC project. They have delivered the goods again and again and again. Even if their work is thought of only as a conceptual framework, that framework and their continual delivery of improvements, have helped us all. Their version 2 form factor is amazing, their interface work insightful and dialogue-provoking. There are things about the OLPC project that annoy the piss out of me. Their transparency, afaict, sucks rocks. The keyboard is seriously in need of revision and/or further justification. Their documentation of their field work on their site is third rate. All in all, they’ve got a serious problem with anything involving interaction with the outside world. But ya know what? They deliver the goods. So they’re kinda closedmouthed.… Read more »

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9 years ago

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Anonymous Reader

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My guess is that the last G1G1 was not as popular as the first G1G1 (that happened in a time when there were very few other netbooks at all). IF they sold the OLPC XO that came wiht the G!G! deal with larger RAM and Larger SSD then it would be useful for others to use (and made the keyboard a bit bigger). However, if anyone has a problem with the Sugar (who is an adult and would like to use the XO-1 for other uses) then it is suggested that they try the OpenBox Widow Mangager Hack (does not need much RAM or SSD) for the XO-1 that is found here: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OpenBox “Given up on Sugar (at least for now)? Finding even XFCE a little bit slow? This guide is for you. It’s neither simple nor quick, but the effort put into installing OpenBox on your OLPC will be… Read more »

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9 years ago

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Anonymous Reader

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ALSO – if someone copied the exact specs of the XO-1, feature for feature, added a bigger SSD and a little more RAM, bigger keyboard (92% or in that area), with the 11 hours of run time per charge that it has (at least) in non-backlit mode, IT WOULD BE THE #1 Netbook out there today!

I had hoped that the ARM folks would do that (but even the ARM device that is the $199 netbook well it had a Lithium Ion battery (only 500 charges per life-time fo the batter vs the 2000 chargers that the OLPC XO-1 NOW has (OLCP XO-1 does not use Litium Ion).

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9 years ago

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lyle howard seave

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Oh just put a fork in it…they were pioneers when no one wanted to touch the idea of a netbook which is how we should remember them. But as an organization, they failed. Over these pasts years, theyve changed chips, theyve got rid of their custom made desktop, changed desktops, suffered public resignations from most of their technical leaders and have flipped flopped so much that honestly people dont care anymore. And when it comes to sales and administration, they are diletantes and Negroponte was swimming with sharks totally unprepared and unsavvy to big business manipulations. And even though it means little in the big picture, they put so much publicity on the ‘100$ laptop” that when it came out to 180$ it was considered to be a failure by many people. Set your bar too high and when you miss, what do you expect? And stop selling us the… Read more »

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[…] The decision to scrap the ambitious XO-2 probably shouldn’t come as a huge surprise. Earlier this year the organization got hit with some budget realities and had to reduce its staff significantly. […]